Damn Kid
by light4dawn
Summary: What if Jacob didn't imprint on Nessie? What if Bella was a typical newborn, and she suffered the consequences of her decisions? I mean, she did get all angsty about it in Eclipse, makes sense if there were be SOME consequences. Jacob/Leah but about J/B Came in 3rd for Best One Shot-Drama in The Eclipse Awards!


_Ever think Breaking Dawn was a of a cop out? What happened to all those consequences Bella had to muddle over during Eclipse when she considered what life as a vampire would mean? What was the point in having an entire book to tell the story of an ensuing battle with newborn vampires - along with a long and story about Jasper and his experience withn newborns - if Bella was never going to actually **be** one?_

_And what is with imprinting? If everything **had** to fit into a nice, neat package, couldn't it at least have some semblance of believability? Was this all SM could come up with to make Jake happy in the end and while Bella still got her happily ever after? _

_Well, if all that irked you, then this is your story (I hope)!_

_Damn Kid opens where book two of Breaking Dawn ends. The birthing scene is done and over. Edward is upstairs frantically trying to save Bella. Rosalie is downstairs with the new baby and Jacob is about to pounce on it. This is what I think should have happened if the characters followed the rules of their own mythical beings as outlined by the original author. Oh yeah, and if Jake didn't imprint on his one true love's daughter (because that's just not right!)._

_Thanks to loveofescapism for doing such a fantastic job of beta'ing this piece!_

_**Disclaimer**_

_The following is based on the characters, settings, and events that appear in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. All recognizable and/or trademarked elements, including, but not limited to, characters, settings, events, plot points, etcetera, are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended. The author of this specific story (known by the pen name, light4dawn) is not associated with Stephenie Meyer, or any affiliates involved with the Twilight series. This work is intended for entertainment purposes only, and no profit is knowingly generated as a result of it. Only aspects entirely unique and original to this story are owned by this story's author._

_**Warning: Violence, death and some course language**_

_**AU - Breaking Dawn**_

_**_******* _**_This presents a perspective on vampirism __different __from the romanticized version given to us by Stephenie Meyer. One thing I did to illustrate my point was to give Bella the same characteristics all of SM's vampires had-including their newborn instability. Please note: This entire story is taken from Jacob's POV, it takes place in public, and the reader is not privvy to anyone's thoughts except Jacob's. _**_*******_**_

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><p><em>The <em>_story __begins __with __an __excerpt __taken __directly __from _Chapter 18 - There Are No Words For This _of _BreakingDawn _by __Stephenie __Meyer._

**Damn Kid**

_I wondered if the creature could be put back together. I doubted it. It was part Bella, too - so it must have inherited some of her vulnerability. I could hear that in the tiny, thrumming beat of its heart._

_Its heart was beating. Hers wasn't._

_The trembling was getting tighter and faster. I coiled myself, preparing to spring at the blond vampire and rip the murderous thing from her arms with my teeth._

_Rosalie cooed at the creature again, setting the empty metal bottle-thing aside and lifting the creature into the air to nuzzle her face against its cheek._

_Perfect. The new position was perfect for my strike._

I didn't care what happened to me or them. I lunged for the baby as it looked up at me with _her_ eyes. I felt my body rip apart as it made room for the wolf in mid-air. My teeth sank into the baby's hard skin, as my paws pushed out at Rosalie. I felt my claws slice fissures into her stone skin. The blond grabbed my mouth, in an attempt to pry it open.

"No! Get it out! That's my baby!" She was officially certifiable.

Then the big guy rammed into me. Rosalie was clutching at the murderous spawn and it tore out of my mouth as my body flew out the window. I felt flesh and blood - human blood - in my mouth. Disgusted, I spat out everything I could and saw half a mutilated baby on the grass beneath my feet. I could hear Rosalie wailing in grief inside the house. It didn't last long because in a second she was in the air above me. She was about to land on me with her teeth bared. I rolled out of the way just in time to get knocked into a tree by her buffoon boyfriend. The two of them were coming after me again when I heard growling at my flanks. It was Leah and Seth. We were crouched ready to fight. At least Leah and I were. We both wanted to kill. Seth was another story...Damn kid.

He got off the hook though because just at that moment the blond, soldier dude and the fortune teller came out and stopped the other two.

"Emmett, if we fight, Rosalie might die. Even if we kill them, it won't be without losses to us," said Mr. Southern Comfort.

"He killed her! He killed our baby! This was my only chance, and she was perfect! She was a _real_ baby!" Mommy Barbie looked like she'd cry if she could - angry tears, of course; she probably didn't do sad.

So this was when my brain finally started to function. I started to call out for Sam. Eddie-boy was too busy turning _her_ into a monster to pay attention to my thoughts, so it wasn't like _he'd_ warn them.

_Sam, if you can hear me come here and help us for shit's sake! Look, I'll do whatever you want. I promise. You don't even have to save my ass, but come and help Seth and Leah. I know you still love Leah. You owe her. _

Yeah, I knew that was a low blow, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Hey, it's not like it was a lie...

"Alice, if I have to kill you to kill that fucking dog I will. Now, get out of my way!" And I thought Barbie was supposed to be kind to animals... Of course, she wasn't the only one pissed at that comment. The blond version of Rhett Butler bared his teeth at her. Maybe I could just sit back and let them kill each other.

"Rose, you know you can never win a fight with me. Just because I can't see _them_ doesn't mean I can't see _you_!" Man, that little midget was spunky.

So now the big guy wasn't paying attention to us anymore. He was standing in front of his woman blocking this five foot girl who probably weighed ninety pounds, dripping wet. He had a brain after all. He was grabbing Blondie - finally - and pushing her back towards the house.

"Get out of here. Stay off our land, or we _will_ kill all of you!" Fuck, I hated southerners. I bet he used to be a redneck, too. I knew why he was letting us go. It was three to four. That meant at least one of them would probably end up going down and the most likely candidate was his tiny little chick with her useless talent - at least it was useless with us.

_Jacob, __run! __Get __Seth __and __Leah __out __of __there! __Even __if __the __Cullens __run __after __you,__it __will __buy __you __some __time __until __we __get __there!_

_Now_ Sam heard me. Where was he five minutes ago when I thought I was going to get my balls handed to me, literally?

_Seth, Leah! Sam and the guys are on their way. You have to make a run for it, and if the leeches chase you at least they'll be further away from here and closer to the pack. Go, now!_

_I'm not complaining about leaving this shit-hole, but do you think you can come with us? You are our leader, you know._

_Sure, sure._

So we ran as fast as we could and no one chased us, which was surprising, but I wasn't going to complain. Actually, it wasn't as fast as _Leah __and __I_ could run because Seth was the slowest, and neither of us were going to let him fall behind. So basically, we ran as fast as _Seth_ could run. Damn kid.

**Fifteen years later...**

"Aw...Da-ad! It's not fair!"

"I don't want to hear it. Do you know how long your mother has waited to see this place? We'll do something fun tomorrow. I promise." Man, this kid and his whining was going to be the death of me. I was pretty sure he didn't take after my side of the family. Billy and I were both pretty easy going, and even Rach and Beck weren't bad, for girls. "Here, I've got a candy bar. If you go over there and sit quietly for ten minutes I'll let you have it, okay?" Finally, he smiled. "Don't tell your mother."

It had been seven years since I'd last phased and my appetite was more at human levels, but I was still six foot seven and hovering at about two-forty. That kid better shut his trap. He was taking my caloric intake for the next two hours. Damn kid.

That's when I noticed _her_. I nearly fell over in shock. She was across the entryway in the next room, gallery, whatever it was called. She was different, but still exactly the same. She moved so quietly now, gliding across the floor like Ginger Rogers would if her feet were feathers. Her hair was still long and deep chestnut brown with waves that curled at the ends. It still fell down to the middle of her back, but it was so much shinier. It was too shiny, like a shampoo commercial or a wig. Her skin was pale, almost white - which wasn't so different - but there was no pink flush or peachy undertone. Now the only other colour I could make out beneath that translucent layer was...grey.

She was looking at a gigantic painting in an overly elaborate gold frame. It had some religious theme going on with a bunch of people in hell or purgatory. How fitting. She didn't turn right away so either I didn't smell so badly anymore, or she was purposely ignoring me.

I didn't mean to do it. I was going to get up quietly, grab the kid and leave, but sometimes I did things without realizing it. It was so quiet that _I_ barely heard anything, but of course she heard it.

"_Bells_."

She turned so fast, _too_ fast. I guess there was no one in her life who called her that anymore. Our eyes met immediately.

My hair wasn't short like it was during my patrolling days, but it wasn't long either. It was layered and somewhere in-between. Billy said I looked like one of the damn Dukes of Hazard. I had a beard now, too. It wasn't shaggy - I kept it very trim and neat, but still, it covered a good portion of my face. I was also sitting on a bench so you could tell I was big, but you wouldn't immediately guess exactly _how_ big. Oh yeah, and I wasn't a kid anymore. Sure, I looked about twenty-five back then, but now I looked like I was in thirty-something territory for sure. But she knew. She would always know, just like I would always know.

I thought she was just going to turn and walk away, but she stood there staring for so long. Eventually, she started walking over.

Shit, she was walking over! What the hell? Crap, I was _never_ going to go out on a rainy day again! She was actually _smiling_. What the hell was there to smile about? And now here she was, standing one foot in front of me. That's right, twelve measly little inches. Crap, she smelled. I didn't think I'd be able to smell them anymore but apparently you don't lose everything. At least my nostrils weren't burning, but it wasn't pleasant, that's for sure. So...was I supposed to say something?

"You smell badly." _Yes, __I've __killed __your __baby__-__sort __of __-__you've __broken __me __into __a __million __little __pieces __from __the __inside __out, __and __we __were __once __in __love. __But __yeah, __your __odour __was __what __mattered __right __now. __Nice, __Jake_.

"So do you, a little. You...have facial hair." Her eyes were just too damn weird. That's what made her look the most _not_ like herself. They seemed to almost glow this weird Dijon mustard colour.

"Yeah." I reached without thinking and stroked my beard with my hand.

Silence. Not the kind we used to have when we hung out in the garage. The kind _we_ almost _never_ had.

"So, what brings you to Paris? More importantly, what brings you to the Louvre? I never thought you were into this sort of thing." Was that an insult?

"I like some of this stuff. Not _this_ particular stuff." I waved my hands around at the medieval religious, repressed crap in the rooms we were currently in. "My wife... she's really into this. She's wanted to come to France for years and here we are. What about you?"

"Oh. We're on a trip as well. Alice said it was supposed to be wet and overcast several days this week."

"Great. I should've called _you_ before booking our tickets." Shit, she smiled. And it made her look a little more like..._her_, again.

How could she smile at the guy who killed her kid - sort of? I guess she never really knew her. She probably didn't know what it felt like to be a parent and love your child. She _was_ one crazed, bloodthirsty newborn. I doubted she remembered much of anything from that time - or before it. The Cullens couldn't leave right after everything happened because she wasn't fit to travel. It was hell for all of us.

The pack had around the clock patrols along their property that whole time. The Cullens were pretty much housebound for months until she could be trusted to travel in a luxury bus they purchased. Who the hell _bought_ a bus?

Silence again. Shit, I wished she'd just go away. I couldn't come up with anything else to say.

"Da-ad, I'm finished. Can we go now?" Okay, it had definitely _not_ been ten minutes yet. And I knew _he_ didn't smell badly. Shit. Okay, everything was okay. Her eyes, they meant she didn't drink from humans. And she seemed fine here where there were plenty of people around.

Just then, he ran right into me and jumped on my lap.

"Hey, watch it. You're getting too big to play roughly with your old man." She smiled again. _Stop __staring __Jake_. Smile or no smile, it wasn't _her_ anymore.

"And what is _your_ name, handsome boy?" Was she seriously talking to my kid? All of a sudden my mind shifted to Hammurabi's Code, and I had _an __eye __for __an __eye_ echoing in my brain.

"Henry. Who are you?"

"I used to know your father a long time ago."

"Were you his girlfriend? Because if you were you should go before Mommy comes back. She doesn't like to see Daddy's old girlfriends." There was a smile _and_ a giggle. Ah, but no blush. It definitely wasn't _her_anymore.

"No, not his girlfriend. So, did your Daddy have a _lot_ of old girlfriends?"

"Okay, that's enough. Remember how Mom and I told you not to talk to strangers? Well, she's a stranger to you." I pointed to...Isabella.

"You and Mom never told me not to talk to strangers. You talk to them all the time! It's Grandpa Charlie that keeps telling me that." Well, she wasn't smiling now. She was looking away, over my shoulder and hugging her body with her arms. I knew that gesture. It made me think _she_ was still in there. Shit.

"Grandpa Charlie? Isn't your Grandpa Billy?" Okay, she was getting really close to crossing the line now.

"That's my _other_ Grandpa." Damn kid. Now I _had_ to talk to her more.

"Charlie remarried. My wife is his step-daughter." She mouthed the word 'oh' but didn't say anything. I had to fill that silence, or I'd go crazy. "He still has all his hair. I thought it was a goner for sure years ago, but it's hanging in there." _Really, __Jake? __Now __you're __talking __about __Charlie's __male __pattern __baldness, __or __lack __thereof_?

"Jake, there you are! We should get back. Vanessa keeps wanting me to hold her, and my arm's about to fall off." Shit, it was the old lady - well, just figuratively; no one would consider her old. I was hoping we'd be done with all this before she showed up.

"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Can we go to the big Ferris wheel now?" I wondered if five was the age when a girl was at her cutest. I just couldn't imagine any girl looking more adorable than she looked right then.

"It's raining, honey. Maybe tomorrow." I looked up at...Isabella with questioning eyes. She nodded and the corners of her mouth lifted up just slightly. That's when they noticed each other. It was bound to happen at this point anyway. I had to stop doing the whole could've, would've, should've crap.

"Holy fuck!"

"Mommy, that's a bad word!"

"Leah? You grew your hair out." Really, was that all we could talk about? Hair?

"Yeah, and you're still eighteen, or is that nineteen? So, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Mommy, that's a bad word, too!" Leah gently pushed Ness aside and shushed her with a finger to her lips.

"I'm on a trip."

"Oh. Well, it was nice seeing you again, but we have to get going. You know, parenting, children, responsibilities, the whole shebang." Oh, the inner bitch was coming out now. "We don't get to Paris often, so we want to make the most of our trip. You know, the kids grow up so fast..." Okay, so the bitch was not quite all that _inner_...

"Yes, of course. Can I just ask a couple of questions, please?"

Leah didn't even utter a word in return. She just did her eyebrow raising, hand gesturing, 'go-ahead-and-spit-it-out-already' thing instead. I usually only got that if I dropped in on her unannounced at work and only if she was busy.

Okay, now Leah was sitting next to me. She had an arm around my waist and she was _snuggling_ me, in public! It was like we were back on our honeymoon. Ness was on her lap, and I had Henry wiggling around on mine. She was really laying it on thick. I could see the effect it was having, and I knew Leah wasn't missing any of it. Shit, she probably saw more of what was going on in _her_ head right now than I did. She always was better at reading people. Of course, no one was ever better at reading _her_ than me, but this wasn't _her_ anymore. Was it?

"Charlie is married to Sue?" Isabella asked. I nodded. "Is he... happy?" I nodded again. Of course, Leah wasn't going to let her off the hook.

"He's happy, _now_." I could see her cringe at those words. She knew what was coming next, but she still stood there waiting for it, like she wanted to be punished. "He was completely broken when he found out his _only_ _daughter_ died."

"Are you talking about Auntie Bella, Mommy?" Ness asked.

"Yes, honey, Grandpa Charlie's little girl that he loved very much."

"I think that's enough, Leah." I started to get up but her ice-cold hand pushed me back down.

"Please, I want to hear. It's okay."

"Remember that fall when Sam found you lost in the woods?" She nodded hesitantly. Shit, Leah _was_ a bitch. She must have _really_ loved me and the kids to have been as nice as she was to us. "Let's just say we all know now where you got that propensity for depression." Her face crumpled, but there were no tears. _She_ would have had lots of tears. "He quit his job just afterwards. Actually, he was _asked_ to quit because he didn't show up most of the time. He started drinking, too. It took years, but he's clean now. He and Mom are happy, and they live in La Push in a new house. It was a fresh start for both of them. He and Billy take Henry and Ness out fishing all the time. They don't catch much because the kids are so damn noisy, but they love having them there." She nodded, but not at Leah. She was staring at some spot on the floor. "We spend a lot of time with them. Charlie's the coach of Henry's soccer team and Billy watches them after school until we get home from work." She was biting her lower lip now. Fuck, I couldn't believe she still _did_ that.

"I'm glad...that he's happy."

"What about you? What's going on in your..._existence_?"

I thought I saw her flinch, but I wasn't sure. My eyes weren't as sharp as they were the last time we saw each other.

"We've seen a lot of places," she answered.

"Because you can't stay in one place for long," Leah commented.

She nodded sadly. "I've gone to college."

"Yeah, so did we, _once_. And then we moved on to a career, marriage, kids..." I elbowed Leah, hard.

"We...spend a lot of family time together. Edward composes music, Alice still loves to shop, and Rosalie fixes cars, like Jake."

"Like Jake used to."

"Oh."

"I still do, in my spare time." I felt like I should be part of the conversation if my name was going to come up. Of course, that earned me an evil glare from my wife. Well, at least no one could ever call her boring, that was for sure.

"So...Leah, you were able to have children after all?"

"Yup. Almost right after we stopped pha- you know. It happened quickly. Henry here was born six months after we got married and Ness came fifteen months later. I guess I'm just a fertile myrtle." I tried to give her a stern look, but she wouldn't pay attention to me so I nudged her - hard - with my knee instead. She didn't budge. Sometimes I wondered if she had retained more of her werewolf strength than I had.

"That's not why we got married though. We were engaged for almost a year." I rolled my eyes after saying that, remembering the torture. _That_ was an incentive to make your marriage work - so you'd never have to go through the pain of planning another one.

"Well, I shouldn't be keeping you from your holidays. Thank you for staying and speaking with me." That definitely did _not_ sound like _her_. That sounded like something _he_ would say.

"Yeah, sure, anytime." Leah looked nonchalant.

She smiled weakly at us and started stepping back gingerly when Leah spoke again.

"It's too bad you can't visit. Charlie's really changed. He's a lot more upbeat and outgoing. Oh, and Renee lives in Forks now, too." That stopped her dead - no pun intended - in her tracks. She stared at Leah with those big round eyes that were the wrong colour.

"Yep. Phil got old enough that he gave up on baseball. He finished his degree and is the gym teacher slash baseball coach at Forks High School now. We were all surprised Renee wanted to come back, but she and Charlie got close after their _daughter_ died. They're great friends now. And she loves our children so much. She teaches at the elementary school in town where they attend. We live in town, by the way."

Her lip started quivering, and she was frozen where she stood. She was un-humanly frozen.

"Hey, and you were friends with Angela Weber, weren't you?" Crap, it wasn't enough that she had stabbed her. She had to twist the knife, too. And why didn't I stand up to her? Oh yeah, because she was my wife, and I loved her. And _she_ was supposed to be no one to me now. "Her kids go to school with our kids. Renee teaches one of them. We're on the parent volunteer committee together." Okay, wife or not, this had to stop. Who knew what might happen if we pushed her too far? I mean, we had _children_ here with us.

I stood up and grabbed her arm, shuddering when I touched her. She was so cold and as hard as stone. Her arm didn't give at all to my strong grip.

"You have to go. You're going to call attention to yourself," I whispered so only she could hear. Just then I saw three middle aged adults with about a dozen teenagers coming our way.

"Ah, there you are! Come, come, we don't want to miss our bus," the older man said to the frozen statue in front of me. That's when I noticed that one of those teenagers was _him_. He saw us right away and was at her side in an instant. He put his arm around her and pulled her towards the group.

I heard him murmur, "Come, love, it's okay. Shhh... It'll be fine." He turned and glared at me as he walked away with her in his arms.

I heard one of the other middle aged adults speaking softly to the third, "These spoiled, rich kids don't even appreciate a school trip to Paris for heaven's sake! Can you imagine if _we_ ever went to Paris for school?"

The other one shrugged and whispered back, "Well, what did you expect? That's what you get stuck when you work in a private school. Hey, at least _we_ got to go to Paris, too." The first one nodded her head, and they began to walk away.

As they were leaving, one of them nodded over to the frozen couple still locked in their embrace and said, "Look at that Masen girl. First she takes off on her own while in a foreign country, and now she's got her hands all over her boyfriend like we aren't right here. No respect I tell you. Damn kid."

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><p><em>Thanks for reading, and a review would be much appreciated!<em>


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